Library Highlights: Terror, Torture & the Law

The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo‘s First 100 Days
Karen Greenberg
HV6432 .G7345 2009

From the Publisher: The Least Worst Place is a gripping narrative account of the first one hundred days of Guantanamo. Greenberg, one of America’s leading experts on the Bush Administration’s policies on terrorism, tells the story through a group of career officers who tried–and ultimately failed–to stymie the Pentagon’s desire to implement harsh new policies in Guantanamo and bypass the Geneva Conventions. She sets her story in Camp X-Ray, which underwent a remarkably quick transformation from a sleepy naval outpost in the tropics into a globally infamous holding pen. Peopled with genuine heroes and villains, this narrative of the earliest days of the post-9/11 era centers on the conflicts between Gitmo-based Marine officers intent on upholding the Geneva Accords and an intelligence unit set up under the Pentagon’s aegis. The latter ultimately won out, replacing transparency with secrecy, military protocol with violations of basic operation procedures, and humane and legal detainee treatment with harsh interrogation methods and torture […].

Tortured Law
VIDEO K5304 .T675 2009
Note: This video features TJSL Prof. Marjorie Cohn
From the Publisher: President Barack Obama has ended six years of American torture of suspected terrorists arising from the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. The torture was originally outlined and sanctioned in 2002 by a series of memos drafted by lawyers in the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. Were these lawyers simply giving the President their best legal advice? Or was their work part of a larger conspiracy to distort the law and authorize torture?

Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced an investigation of CIA interrogators who exceeded the authority provided by the “torture memos.” But the officials who ordered these actions, and the lawyers who provided the legal cover have not been held accountable.

The End of Reciprocity: Terror, Torture, and the Law of War
Mark Osiel
KZ6471 .O845 2009
From the Publisher: Why should America restrain itself in detaining, interrogating, and targeting terrorists when they show it no similar forbearance? Is it fair to expect one side to fight by more stringent rules than the other, placing itself at disadvantage? Is the disadvantaged side then permitted to use the tactics and strategies of its opponent? If so, then America’s most controversial counterterrorism practices are justified as commensurate responses to indiscriminate terror. Yet different ethical standards prove entirely fitting, the author finds, in a conflict between a network of suicidal terrorists seeking mass atrocity at any cost and a constitutional democracy committed to respecting human dignity and the rule of law. The most important reciprocity involves neither uniform application of fair rules nor their enforcement by a simpleminded tit-for-tat. Real reciprocity instead entails contributing to an emergent global contract that encompasses the law of war and from which all peoples may mutually benefit.

International Legal Standards for the Protection from Refoulement: A Legal Analysis on the Prohibitions on Refoulement Contained in the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention Against Torture
C.W. Wouters
K3230.R45 W68 2009
From the Publisher: Every year, millions of people are seeking protection from countries other than their own for fear of being tortured, persecuted or killed. Finding protection is not easy. States are closely guarding their borders, making it difficult for aliens to seek and enjoy protection from serious harm. No matter where they are or why they flee, people seeking international protection are vulnerable and insecure; in dire need of knowing, understanding and receiving their rights. This book explores the basic right of every forcibly displaced person to be protected from refoulement. The prohibition of refoulement is the cornerstone of international refugee and asylum law and aims to provide protection to people at risk of persecution, torture, inhuman treatment or other human rights violations upon return to their own country. This book provides a comprehensive legal analysis of prohibitions of refoulement contained in four human rights treaties: the Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture. The emphasis of the analysis is on the international meaning of the prohibitions of refoulement and on the  responsibilities of States deriving from these prohibitions. The four treaties are analysed in separate chapters. The final chapter compares the prohibitions of refoulement contained in the four investigated treaties. This book will be an important resource for legal scholars, students and practitioners working with asylum seekers and refugees throughout the world. It is also a reminder for States, which have obliged themselves to protect people from becoming victims of unspeakable atrocities.

Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror
Peter Jan Honigsberg
KF9625 .H66 2009
From the Publisher: Jose Padilla short-shackled and wearing blackened goggles and earmuffs to block out all light and sound on his way to the dentist. Fifteen-year-old Omar Khadr crying out to an American soldier, “Kill me!” Hunger strikers at Guantánamo being restrained and force-fed through tubes up their nostrils. John Walker Lindh lying naked and blindfolded in a metal container, bound by his hands and feet, in the freezing Afghan winter night. This is the story of the Bush administration’s response to the attacks of September 11, 2001—and of how we have been led down a path of executive abuses, human tragedies, abandonment of the Constitution, and the erosion of due process and liberty. In this vitally important book, Peter Jan Honigsberg chronicles the black hole of the American judicial system from 2001 to the present, providing an incisive analysis of exactly what we have lost over the past seven years and where we are now headed.

The Treatment of Prisoners Under International Law
Nigel Rodley with Matt Pollard
K5519 .R63 2009
From the Publisher: The book is more than a descriptive analysis of the field. It acknowledges areas of unclarity or where developments may be embryonic.  Solutions are offered. Recent developments have confirmed the value of solutions proposed in this edition and the previous one. Central to most of the chapters is the human rights norm of most salience in the treatment of prisoners, namely, the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The early chapters focus on the period of first detention, when detainees are most at risk of having information or confessions, however unreliable, extracted by unlawful means. Voices contemplating the legitimacy of such treatment to combat terrorism have been heard in the wake of the atrocities of 11 September 2001. The book finds that the evidence clearly suggests that the absolute prohibition of such treatment remains firm. […] Chapters are also devoted to the extreme practice of enforced disappearance and the contribution of the new convention on this phenomenon, as well as to extra-legal executions.

Torture In and By the United States Conference Display

The goal of the Torture In and By the United States of America international conference is to raise public awareness about the use of torture in and by the Unites States of America and in other countries of the world. Prominent legal scholars who are experts in the field of torture will discuss the many controversial issues related to  the definition of torture, proposed justifications for the use of torture, the international and domestic legal instruments prohibiting torture and its continued use to protect national security.

The Library Lobby display features a selection of books and articles published by featured speakers William J. Aceves, Jordan J. Paust, Michael P. Scharf, and TJSL professors Susan Tiefenbrun and Marjorie Cohn, attending the Torture In and By the United States of America international conference to be held on campus on January 29, 2010.

Library Highlights: Law & War

Jus Post Bellum: Towards a Law of Transition from Conflict to Peace
edited by Carsten Stahn, Jann K. Kleffner
KZ6740 .J87 2008
From the Publisher: Warfare is usually theorised in the categories of jus ad bellum (justification for recourse to force) and jus in bello (rules applicable in armed conflict). The challenge of establishing fair and sustainable peace after conflict (jus post bellum) has received less attention in existing law and practice, although it has an established tradition in just war theory. This book sheds a fresh light on the use and relevance of the concept of jus post bellum in contemporary international law and policy. It examines the origins and foundations of the concept from an inter-disciplinary perspective. Moreover, it identifies some of the features and challenges of a framework governing transitions from conflict to peace, such as the treatment of sovereignty, accountability and local ownership, the relationship of jus post bellum to jus ad bellum and jus in bello and the role of human rights law and transitional justice.

The Legitimate Use of Military Force: The Just War Tradition and the Customary Law of Armed Conflict
edited by Howard M. Hensel
U22 .L37 2008
From the Publisher: Throughout human history, scholars, statesmen and military leaders have attempted to define what constitutes the legitimate use of armed force by one community against another. Moreover, if force is to be used, what normative guidelines should govern the conduct of warfare? Based upon the assumption that armed conflict is a human enterprise and therefore subject to human limitations, the Western ‘just war tradition’ represents an attempt to provide these guidelines. Following on from the success of Hensel’s earlier publication, The Law of Armed Conflict, this volume brings together an internationally recognized team of scholars to explore the philosophical and societal foundations of just war tradition. It relates the principles of jus ad bellum to contemporary issues confronting the global community and explores the relationship between the principles of jus in bello and the various principles embodied in the customary law of armed conflict.

Applying an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing and assessing the links between just war and the norms of behaviour, the book provides a valuable contribution to international law, international relations and national security studies.

Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent
Marjorie Cohn (TJSL Faculty) and Kathleen Gilberd
U22 .C542 2009
From the Publisher: Rules of Disengagement examines the reasons men and women in the military have disobeyed orders and resisted the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It takes readers into the courtroom where sailors, soldiers, and Marines have argued that these wars are illegal under international law and unconstitutional under U.S. law. Through the voices of active duty service members and veterans, it explores the growing conviction among our troops that the war is wrong. It then examines what they have done—and what readers can do—to resist and end the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Defending Humanity: When Force is Justified and Why
George P. Fletcher and Jens David Ohlin
JZ6385 .F54 2008
From the Publisher: In Defending Humanity , internationally acclaimed legal scholar George P. Fletcher and Jens David Ohlin, a leading expert on international criminal law, tackle one of the most important and controversial questions of our time: When is war justified? When a nation is attacked, few would deny that it has the right to respond with force. But what about preemptive and preventive wars, or crossing another state’s border to stop genocide? Was Israel justified in initiating the Six Day War, and was NATO’s intervention in Kosovo legal? What about the U.S. invasion of Iraq?

In their provocative new book, Fletcher and Ohlin offer a groundbreaking theory on the legality of war with clear guidelines for evaluating these interventions. The authors argue that much of the confusion on the subject stems from a persistent misunderstanding of the United Nations Charter. The Charter appears to be very clear on the use of military force: it is only allowed when authorized by the Security Council or in self-defense. Unfortunately, this has led to the problem of justifying force when the Security Council refuses to act or when self-defense is thought not to apply–and to the difficult dilemma of declaring such interventions illegal or ignoring the UN Charter altogether.

Fletcher and Ohlin suggest that the answer lies in going back to the domestic criminal law concepts upon which the UN Charter was originally based, in particular, the concept of “legitimate defense, “which encompasses not only self-defense but defense of others. Lost in the English-language version of the Charter but a vital part of the French and other non-English versions, the concept of legitimate defense will enable political leaders, courts, and scholars to see the solid basis under international law for states to intervene with force–not just to protect themselves against an imminent attack but also to defend other national groups.

The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo’s First 100 Days
Karen Greenberg
HV6432 .G7345 2009
From the Publisher: In January 2002, the first flight of detainees captured in the “Global War on Terror” disembarked in Guantanamo Bay, dazed, bewildered, and–more often than not–alarmingly thin. Given very little advance notice, the military’s preparations for this group of predominantly unimportant ne’er-do-wells were hastily thrown together, but as Karen Greenberg shows, a number of capable and honorable Marine officers tried to create a humane and just detention center–only to be thwarted by the Bush Administration.

The Least Worst Place is a gripping narrative account of the first one hundred days of Guantanamo. Greenberg, one of America’s leading experts on the Bush Administration’s policies on terrorism, tells the story through a group of career officers who tried–and ultimately failed–to stymie the Pentagon’s desire to implement harsh new policies in Guantanamo and bypass the Geneva Conventions. She sets her story in Camp X-Ray, which underwent a remarkably quick transformation from a sleepy naval outpost in the tropics into a globally infamous holding pen. Peopled with genuine heroes and villains, this narrative of the earliest days of the post-9/11 era centers on the conflicts between Gitmo-based Marine officers intent on upholding the Geneva Accords and an intelligence unit set up under the Pentagon’s aegis. The latter ultimately won out, replacing transparency with secrecy, military protocol with violations of basic operation procedures, and humane and legal detainee treatment with harsh interrogation methods and torture […].